christmas time

It's beginning to really feel like Christmas around here.

unpacked

We just unpacked the absolute last box that was in our house from moving. Yes, it took us 2 months but we finally finished. We still don't have anything hanging on the walls...baby steps. I think I'll tackle that after Christmas. Our guest bed was also delivered this week so we are officially soliciting guests now. Please come visit.You have a brand new queen size bed waiting for you.

In other news, I'm getting very excited for my trip out to Utah. Only a week and a half left until Asher and I leave. I can't wait to see everyone. I haven't been to Utah in over a year. I know we are going to have such a great time!

lots of pictures from Thanksgiving weekend

We went up to Quinn's parent's house in Virginia for Thanksgiving weekend. We drove up after work on Wednesday night.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and Grandpa Airplane's birthday. We had a delicious birthday breakfast and then set to work on making a Thanksgiving dinner.

I think it turned out great!

Asher napped through dinner but joined us later to celebrate Grandpa's birthday.

 

 

Friday morning Quinn wanted Asher to bathe in Grandma's deluxe bathtub. So he did. He loved it!

Then we headed into D.C. for a trip to the Newsuem.  It was a very cool museum and I highly recommend it!

Here is Asher in front of some of the Berlin Wall.

There was a cool terrace with great views of the city.

They have a 9/11 exhibit that is very interesting. One part of the exhibit is all the front pages of various newspapers from the day after.

My personal favorite was from the San Franscisco Examiner.

 

(sorry it is out of focus)

They also had part of the radio tower from the north tower.

Saturday we took a trip to the mall and I was able to get some H&M shopping in. That night we met some old friends of Quinn Nick & Stephanie and Todd & Kelsey for dinner. We got to meet Nick & Stephanie's new daughter which is always fun. But being an idiot I forgot to bring my camera.

Sunday morning we woke up leisurely. Asher learned to play the piano from Grandma.

 

Then we packed up the car and headed home. It was a great weekend!

sick boys

I have had two sick boys for the last few days. Asher seems to be on the mend. Quinn seems to be getting worse. The best part about it is that every time Quinn blows his nose, Asher cries. Quinn will even go to the other room, but it still freaks Asher out and he starts crying.

Quinn has also spent his time at home teaching Asher how to climb stairs. He has picked it up very quickly and is now a semi-pro at climbing the stairs. The good news is that I haven't seem him crawl to the stairs yet, so I think he only thinks they exist if his Dad puts him on them. 

We leave tomorrow evening for Virginia for Asher's first Thanksgiving. I'm excited for time with family and some good food!

standing tall

This is Asher's new trick.

 

He is so over crawling. All he wants to do is be standing every second of every day. Pretty much as soon as I put him on the floor he crawls to either me or the couch, pulls himself up and then proceeds to slobber all over me or the couch. Good times.

He also loves taking a shower.

And he loves his new high chair. Yes, we finally had to get him one since he became the Bumbo escape artist.

family history

Our Sunday School lesson this week was on seeking out your ancestors and doing your part towards your family history. It got me thinking that I should start making my parents tell us stories from their past. Perhaps I may just even get a digital recorder and pester them a bit when I'm back in Utah this winter. I know my Dad will be on board since he is currently obsessed with scanning every last picture we have and creating a digital copy so that we can all have a DVD with all the family photos.

But it also got me thinking about displaying my family tree and wouldn't you know what I saw on Design*Sponge today. They had a link to a very cool site that makes modern genealogy displays, check it out HERE. I'm thinking I would love this one  

or this one

happy halloween

We are having fun celebrating our first Halloween in our new home. Asher is decked out in his Halloween jammies. And for the first time ever, Quinn and I actually carved pumpkins.  We have been waiting patiently for trick or treaters and we finally got some! Hopefully we will get some more soon otherwise we will have A LOT of candy left over.

costume debut

Asher was able to debut his costume tonight for the church "Trunk or Treat" party. We did a little photo shoot on the front porch first.

 

isn't he the cutest little skunk ever?

If anyone has ever been around him when he is having his baby gas then you know this is an appropriate costume for him. He is definitely our little stinker!

We had so much fun checking out all of the other costumes tonight. There was the cutest little girl running around in an adorable peacock outfit. And one girl had on a Scarlet O'Hara outfit that I would die to dress up in. And of course what "trunk or treat" is complete without a Gears of War C.O.G. soldier?

wedding weekend

We left Thursday to Phoenix for Cameron and Ashley's wedding. We were suppose to fly through Houston but ended up being rerouted through DC. I wasn't prepared mentally for a 5 hour fllight with a boy who has just learned how to crawl, but he actually did surprisingly well. My Dad picked us up at the airport and off we went to the rental house to meet up with the whole family. It was so much fun to see everyone again and for Dana, Ryan and kids to finally meet Asher and for me to finally meet baby Marshall and Ashley.

Friday morning, my friend and former roommate Shenise came and picked Lindsay and me up for brunch. We had a great time catching up and eating delicious food.

Shenise, me, Lindsay

Friday afternoon we all got dressed up and took some family pictures. I can't wait to see the results. Then that evening we were off to the rehearsal dinner.

 

 The happy couple

niece and nephew love

Saturday morning we mostly took it easy and hung out and enjoyed one another's company. Then we all got dressed up and ready for the festivities. Here are a few pre-wedding pics.

Cameron and all his sisters

 Dad, Mom and all their children

 

 All the men with almost all the kids (baby Marshall was sleeping)

The wedding was beautiful and the reception was so much fun. I'ts always nice to reconnect with family you haven't seen in forever.

 

 Lacy & Lucy and Me & Asher (Lucy and Asher are two days apart)

 

 Cameron was nice to Ashley

 

Ashley got Cameron good!

It was such a quick but fun weekend. Asher was very good despite the fact that he was being hauled here and there at all hours and his body was totally confused. We left before the crack of dawn this morning. We arrived safe and sound and put Asher down early. Poor little guy is tuckered out.

Congratulations Cameron and Ashley! Thank you for letting us be part of your wedding weekend!

sneak peak

We had some family (but mainly Asher) pictures taken this week. We shot downtown Raleigh. Our wonderful photographer emailed me yesterday saying they were up on her blog. Take a look here.  I am so excited to have so many great shots of Asher!

pumpkin patch

Saturday we took Asher to his first pumpkin patch. Quinn's work had an event at Ganyard Hill Farm in Durham.

Besides the ridiculously cold temperatures it was a lot of fun.

First stop was visiting the goats with Dad.

Next up was some cotton picking with Mom.

We spent some time in the patch and picked out three pumpkins to take home with us.

After snapping a family photo it started to get dark and really really cold. We ate some food and then hurried home.  We stopped for hot cider on the way home which helped warm us all up. Then we settled down to watch some ALCS playoffs. Unfortunately, I had to go to bed before the game was over.

Our house is slowly starting to feel more like a home. I cooked our first meal in the house and I'm beside myself with the amount of counter space and cupboard space. I love it! We also had neighbors stop by today and bring us brownies and welcome us to the neighborhood.

moving day(s)

We have spent the last two weeks getting the house move-in ready. My mother-in-law graciously came down last week and helped us paint all the bedrooms. One of the bedrooms was an ugly pale orange and one was a bright pink. We also painted the master bedroom. It was blue. We are so grateful she could come down and spend the week with us. We could not have done it without her.

Tuesday the movers came and moved all of our stuff from storage to the house. Here we are in front of our new house on moving day!

We spent a lot of the day unpacking. We made good progress but we still slept at the apartment since our clothes and toiletries were there.

Asher and I spent Wednesday at the house waiting for the cable guy and doing more unpacking. I took this picture of Asher playing with Daddy's lancer replica from Gears of War. It might make me a bad mom, but I think it is adorable :)

Today I spent  most of the day packing up all the stuff we have acquired over the last 3 months. We have made due (or at least we thought) with the bare minimum but we still somehow managed to accumulate a ton of stuff. After work Quinn made a couple of runs to the house with boxes of stuff. We will sleep one more night here at the apartment and tomorrow we will officially be living in our new house!

another first

Yesterday Asher had a bit of a tough day. It really wasn't that bad all things considered but since he is usually so amiable, I was a little frustrated. I tried for about 2 hours to get him to go down for a nap. He just cried and thrashed around the whole time. Very unlike him. He finally went down but not until he had been up for about 5 hours straight. His crankiness continued throughout the afternoon. Then today, I discovered why. I felt his first tooth coming through. I don't know why but this just got me so excited. My little boy is growing so fast. I can't believe how much he changes everyday.

progress

my little eating champ!

the joys of home ownership

We have already had our first unexpected surprise with our home. Thankfully this is a cheap and relatively easy fix. We drove out to the house today to do some cleaning. We had brought a few blankets for Asher to play on while we cleaned. We spread them out on the carpet in the master bedroom and let him roam. A few minutes later Quinn and I joined Asher on the floor to eat the Taco Bell we had picked up on the way. Pretty soon Quinn kept seeing little bugs everywhere. He wasn't sure what they were. We watched them for a while and Quinn said he thought they might be fleas. Yuck. It wasn't long before I saw two jump on and off of Asher. That was it. I picked him up off of the floor lightening fast and we were out of there. We packed up everything in the car and left. As soon as we got home I started calling and emailing exterminators. I even got a hold of one at 5 pm on a Saturday. He is coming out to the house Monday night to take care of the fleas. He asked if the previous owners had a pet and I told them they had a cat. "Great, cat fleas, those are the worst," was his response. Yay, what joy is mine. Also, he told me because of the life-cycle of fleas that it will take 6-8 months to get rid of them completely. Great, again, what joy is mine.

I was a little disheartened by this experience. Not exactly the way you want your first 15 minutes to go in your new home, but deep down I know we are actually really lucky we caught this before we moved in all of our stuff.

it's ours

We closed on the house at the crack of dawn this morning. We had to be at the attorney's office at 8:30 am and with a baby that feels like the crack of dawn to me. About 45 initials and 30 signatures later we had the keys in hand. Asher and I were exhausted from the excitement of it all so we went back to the apartment for our mid-morning naps and Quinn went off to work. It doesn't feel real yet. But I think after we do some work in the house this weekend it will start to become more of a reality. I think we will move in the weekend of the 10th.

After our naps, Asher and I went to the mall today to return a few things. While leaving the mall parking lot I saw a RAT...disgusting. It ran right under my car. I know I was in the safety of my car but I still screamed and it sent shivers down my spine. I kow they are out there but why do I have to see them and in the mall parking lot of all places?

So between buying a house and seeing a rat it was a pretty eventful day!

time flies

Asher is 6 months old today. I have no idea how that happened. I swear he was just born yesterday. I know all I have to do is blink and we will be celebrating his first birthday. It goes by so fast.

But what a difference six months makes. I remember being totally overwhelmed when he was first born, totally sleep deprived and wondering if I would ever have a "normal" life again. Thankfully, I don't have my old "normal" life back, I have a new and improved "normal" life which involves spending time with Asher every day. He is pure joy wrapped up in a not so little 18 pound package.

I mean with dimples like those how could I not want to spend every waking minute with that?

                                         

Asher has the happiest disposition. He just wants to laugh, smile and play all day. He definitely has his Dad's personality.

He hardly ever cries.

He still doesn't like to nap very much.

He now thankfully sleeps about 11 to 12 hours straight!!!!!!!

He has slowly been introduced to fruits and veggies. He still HATES the rice cereal, he is not so sure about peas, but really enjoys applesauce, bananas, sweet potatoes, squash and prunes.

He now totally refuses formula which I'm desperately trying to rectify.

He is incredibly curious and grabs at everything. I can no longer hold him and eat or drink anything at the same time.

He is constantly pulling at and out my hair. Ouch!

To celebrate his half birthday we gave him what I'm sure will be the first of much officially licensed apparel...an Iron Man graphic tee. We are also going to give him some juice today as a special treat. Well, really this is more of an attempt to help him figure out the sippy cup. I've been putting formula in it but once a drop touches his tongue and he figures out that it is formula he stops trying.

                                          

This was obviously taken before he realized there was formula in the cup.

cha-ching

I think I'm finally getting the hang of the coupon world. The local grocery store, Harris Teeter, just started triple coupons this morning. I went first thing this morning before Quinn left for work so I could just run in without having to haul the baby. Last night I prepped by scanning the blogs for the list of freebies and cheapies. Here is what I came away with.

I paid a grand total of $7.59 for all of it. But even that I feel is a bit misleading because i had to buy salsa because I needed it for two meals this week (and I'm picky about my salsa) so that added 3 dollars to my total. But all in all I'm feeling really great about it and I'm excited to do it all again on Monday after I get the new Sunday paper!

farmer's market

We went to the State Farmer's Market this Saturday and had so much fun. We walked up and down the aisles drooling over the fruits and vegetables. Quinn's favorite booth was a booth with about 15 different varieties of salsa. We ended up buying a super delicious mango salsa. We also bought some fall peaches and an italian loaf bread. We ate lunch at the NC Seafood Restaurant on-site with all kinds of seafood from the shores of North Carolina. We ended up sharing a lunch plate that consisted of fried flounder, cole slaw, fries and hush puppies followed by a slice of coconut cream pie. A very delicious southern meal.  Now that I know all that the market has to offer, I can't wait to go back this weekend.

Later that day we drove around in the town we are moving too where we saw this little delight... an entire fast food restaurant revolving around the biscuit. I think I'm going to enjoy living in the South.

a sitting-up montage

Asher has really started to sit up lately. We did a photo shoot this morning to commemorate.